No Matter What
by zeultrafangirl
Summary: After another night of having strange, almost futuristic dreams, Isa becomes worried about his current relationship with his best friend Lea. Birthday fic for tumblr user wherearcaninesgather. One-shot AkuSai with small subtle hints of romance, but mainly fluffy friendship.


_Which would you rather suffer the loss of; Some make believe friendship, or a real one?_

I had that dream again. Sometimes they're the same and sometimes they're different, but the one thing, or person I should say, that continues to stay in these dreams is Lea. But then again, dreams are always weird; they never really seem to make sense. Nonetheless, it constantly happens and I can't help but wake up and feel fearful. The one I just finished having was a weird one, but it didn't stop this uncomfortable feeling in my stomach. I always wonder if these are some kinds of predictions of the future or if it's some twisted alternate universe nightmare.

Of course, refusing to think too much of it, I got out of my bed and got ready for the day. Knowing Lea, he would have some other kind of ridiculous scheme to try and get into the castle, which would most likely fail since we were always thrown out by the guards, Aeleus and Dilan. He could be such a child at times, but it was amusing just the same, and it's better to see him smile. Not like my plans are any better, since the same response happens regardless of what we do. Now it's turned to the point where Lea made a new competition trying to see which one of us would have the best plan to get into the castle, boasting that the loser had to pay for the Sea Salt Ice Cream Scrooge McDuck sold.

I left my home once I was ready and made my way to the town square, since that was where Lea and I tended to meet up at. When I got there, I didn't see my friend at all, which was very strange. Of course, it was just a bit annoying since now I had to hunt him down. The next stop I made was over to the castle garden, thinking that he had already took action to his next ridiculous scheme, but I was proven wrong when I didn't see his fiery red hair anywhere. With a bit of an aggravated sigh, I went back the other way, hoping to find him at the Fountain Court.

Thank goodness my search wasn't for too long as soon as my eyes found the familiar form of my friend sitting on the stone bench. I made my way down the steps, trying to not rush over to him, even though I was excited to see him. Then again, he made me hunt down for him so there was no need to quicken my step at all. I watched as he turned his head to face me and gave me one of his usual grins, the sight causing me to smile fondly at him, before letting it disappear for a bit.

"I didn't expect to find you here today, Lea," I began as I sat down next to him, turning my head to face him. "Then again, I'm surprised you're even up at all. Aren't you still dead asleep to the world?"

Lea rolled his eyes and laughed at me, playfully pushing me to the side with his shoulder. "Well thanks a lot, Isa," he answered sarcastically before looking back over at the fountain. "And what's wrong with me being here? You've got something more important that you need me for?"

I shook my head at Lea's response, a small smirk on my face. I watched as his sarcastic facial expression changed to a more frustrated one, but not too much that he was truly angry. In the end, he just made a face at me in such a childlike way that I couldn't help but laugh at him. "I was just asking, Lea," I responded calmly, even with a bit of a defensive tone in my voice, "If I honestly had a tight schedule at the current moment, do you really think we'd be sitting around here and wasting precious time?"

I waited for him to respond, watching as he silently thought over my question before shrugging his shoulders. "Okay, you've got a point there," he finally responded, his facial expression relaxing to what I was so used to seeing.

"Of course I do. When haven't I?" I asked, almost in a dry sarcastic manner when suddenly that phrase from my dream last night returned to me. I was still disbelieving it to be true, even though the person I was talking to, if it had actually been me, was Lea. But he wasn't really Lea at all either. He was a lot older than Lea, his hair longer, and his eyes more green than the turquoise ones I was so used to looking into. Yet, I couldn't shake off that it was him, in some essence.

Without really knowing it, my mind had wandered off to those dreams, the things I've said echoing in my head. It had surfaced in me so many emotions that I had never had to think about before, but only briefly felt when Lea and I had met a boy named Ventus, although he preferred to go by Ven, not too long ago. As much as I'd like to deny it, I knew I had felt some sense of jealousy, as if I already knew that I would be losing this closeness I already had with Lea.

Not to mention that the dreams I had only made it worse as I watched what I thought was me grow more and more distant with the man that looked like Lea; preferring a girl with raven black hair, whom I had seemed to already think so lowly of, and a boy that carried an uncanny resemblance to Ven. I could remember the feeling of bitterness, betrayal, and even sadness. I'm quite sure that I even felt heartbroken as well when I knew that this man that looked like Lea _did_ seem to put those other two on a higher pedestal, as if what we had wasn't even that important anymore.

I barely realized I had gotten too distracted in my thoughts when my mind finally took into recognition the fact that Lea had been calling my name, snapping his fingers in front of my eyes to get my attention. I blinked and looked over at him, almost as if he had woken me up from a dream, but I was appreciative of him doing that regardless.

"Is something wrong with you today, Isa?" Lea asked me, a worried look in his eyes as his eyebrows furrowed. "It's not like you to just start spacing out of the blue… Is something bothering you?"

Just hearing the concern in his voice and face made me feel funny inside, and I knew I really couldn't do much more to hide anything since he already figured out there was something wrong with me. I stayed silent for a bit, looking back over at the fountain, recollecting my thoughts before I looked back at him. "Lea… We're… We're always going to be friends right?"

Lea blinked at me, probably caught off guard from my question before a smile grew on his face. "Isa, what kind of question is that?" he asked in response, a wide grin on his face. "I hope you didn't wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Why would you even think such a foolish thing?"

I opened and closed my mouth, trying not to fumble over my words like an idiot. I _refused_ to act like too much of an idiot around Lea, since he already handled that well enough for the two of us. When I finally felt like I had an answer, I had opened my mouth again yet Lea had proceeded to go on.

"Isa," Lea began, looking at me with a note of determination in his voice, serious once again, "here's something I want you to know; I will never stop being friends with you, no matter what happens."

I continued to sit there, feeling reassured by his response, but that didn't stop this doubtful feeling that had been caused by the dreams. He continued to look at me, his eyes piercing into mine before he continued yet again.

"Now, I want you to say it, Isa," Lea ordered calmly, sitting back a bit as he waited for me to do as he asked of me.

I just gave him a look, but when I realized that he actually meant it, I sighed and thought it was best to get it over with. "I will never stop being friends with you, no matter what happens," I repeated, word from word, the tone of my voice giving off an annoyed tone.

"Again," Lea simply responded, sounding as if he was dissatisfied with my response.

Instead of going to argue with him and tell him that this was stupid, which in all honesty, was what I was close to doing, I repeated the phrase again, trying to sound a bit more convincing. Still Lea asked me to repeat the phrase, and I kept doing what he asked, hoping that at some point that he would finally let me stop.

When that didn't seem to happen, I felt like I was going to be saying this for the remainder of the day until I finally became annoyed and frowned at him. "Lea, what's the point of me repeating this over and over again? I'm not a parrot."

Lea was silent for a bit before his serious expression faded and he smiled an almost crooked grin as he tapped the side of his forehead. "I've got to make sure that you've got it memorized," he answered back with a light laugh. "Because you know that nothing's going to change about our friendship, so don't worry about it."

It never ceased to amaze me how Lea always seemed, to an extent, almost relaxed about everything. Maybe it was because he still held an almost childish view of things, but regardless of that, I couldn't help but smile, before quickly hiding it and returning back to my usual cold behavior. "Well I've got it memorized, so you don't have to think that I'm worrying about it," I replied in a somewhat defensive manner, even though I knew that Lea could look past that.

Lea's smile grew even wider as he hopped off the bench and pulled me up, wrapping his arms around my shoulder and dragging me up the steps and away from the fountain court. "Now then, let's go get some ice cream from Scrooge now that you're all better," he said happily, acting more childish than I thought was possible.

I rolled my eyes lightly and shook my head gently, fighting the blush that wanted to appear on my face at being so close to him. As we made our way over to Scrooge, I continued to think back on what Lea had said, on how sure he was about everything. If he was convinced by these words, by the very bond of our friendship, then who am I to say that a dream was right? Maybe I _was_ thinking too much about it. Because being here with him, was more real than anything else in the world.

And you know what? I preferred the present rather than a bunch of dreams any day.


End file.
